Montrose Adult School Blogging Class

Various questions that have come up

You all should have received invitations to officially join the class blog (which will mean your comments no longer need to be approved in order to show up, and you will be able to create posts. If you’ve set up your account, you can check by going to http://www.blogger.com/. Once you log in (if you clicked “Remember me” on a previous step on your own computer, you shouldn’t even have to log in), you should see the class blog in your Dashboard (the first screen that greets you).

To change your Blogger password: if you know the old one, you can use this link: https://www.google.com/accounts/EditPasswd
If you forgot your password, use this page: http://www.blogger.com/forgot.g and put in your email address.

Display name: The display name is what people see as the author of the comment or post. For example, look at the comments page for the “Homework” post: http://blogging-mas-spring08.blogspot.com/2008/03/homework-for-first-class-entirely.html Above each comment you’ll see “[Display Name] said…” If you would like to change your display name, use this link: http://www.blogger.com/edit-profile.g and scroll down to the Identity section. You can type in the new Display Name you want to use, then scroll to the very bottom and click “Save Profile.” (There is lots of information you can add to your Profile if you would like!)

Username/email: When Google first starting setting up accounts for people, they let you choose a username that was NOT an email address. They also did not have the eight-character password minimum. Subsequently they changed the rules, but they did not universally change the language. So when you are using Blogger or any other Google products, mentally substitute “email address” when you see “user name.” Sometimes you will see “nickname” which is more like a classic non-email username. The really confusing thing is that you can change your email address but you will keep the old one as your “username.” Aaargh! I wouldn’t be suprised if they changed this all again at some point down the road.

To delete a blog that you’ve started, go to the “Settings.” The first tab is “Basic.” If you scroll down to the very bottom of that page, you can click “Delete This Blog.”

Statistics/Counters: As I suspected, there is not a built-in site counter for Blogger. You need to set up a third-party solution. Here is the Blogger help page about this: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=42078 I just set up a Google Analytics account. I can demonstrate how that works in class.

If you have any other questions before the next class, add a comment or email me! See you Tuesday.

March 16, 2008 at 9:12 pm Leave a comment

Useful skills

If you are not completely comfortable with Copy and Paste, including using your Shift key to select text, try this tutorial.

To save files as you go along and have them accessible to you from any computer, it’s very helpful to have a web-based email account (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, whatever you like) and know how to send yourself files as attachments. You can also send files to your ISP-based email account (Epix, NEP, RoadRunner, etc.) but be aware that typically once you download your email, it’s only available on that computer. It’s typically worth setting up a webmail account just to house files; you don’t need to use it on a regular basis.

Each mail program has its own way to attach files. Here are directions for Gmail and Yahoo. For Hotmail (Windows Live Mail), click the blue question mark on the top right corner of the mail screen and search on “How do I attach files to e-mail messages? ” (this link should take you to Help but not necessarily to that question).

March 16, 2008 at 9:10 pm Leave a comment